MANILA – Incoming Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Thursday said there is no reason to doubt President Rodrigo Duterte's statements, stressing that the Chief Executive would not make claims without factual bases.

Roque said this when asked to comment on Duterte’s oft-repeated claim that the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is out to remove him from office or even kill him, an allegation that US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim and a White House official have denied.

“Well, if that is true, we’re happy,” Roque said of the statements from the two US officials.

“But if the President says that there is, I have no position to dispute what the President says. The President has access to information that he only has access to. I have not seen it. But I trust and believe that my President will not say anything without factual basis. I stand by whatever my President says,” said Roque.

Critics have called out the President for supposedly making incorrect claims in his speeches, including his estimate that there could be 4 million "drug users" in the Philippines.